IDENTIFICATION OF SITES FOR ESTABLISHING PHOTOVOLTAIC SOLAR FARMS IN PAKISTAN USING SOLAR GEOMETRY

Utility scale Solar farms generally consist of multiple arrays of Photovoltaic (PV) Panels which collect and convert solar energy into electrical energy. Pakistan is facing a serious energy crisis. It is working on solar energy options. Therefore, it is imperative to identify most viable sites that have a high solar radiation. We utilized solar geometry and the Google Earth, a geographical information program to identify optimal sites for Pakistan. These sites should also include basic requirements for a PV plant such as availability of local grid, barren land, roads, water, and good climatic conditions. The Average solar intensity (I) was calculated by using solar geometry on a daily basis, which served as the basis for annual projections. It has been found that the best location for building a solar farm is district QilaSaifullah (I = 9.79 kWh/m2/day) in Baluchistan province. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, district Nowshera (I= 8.06 kWh/m2/day), in Sindh province, district Sukkur (I = 7.9 kWh/m2/day) and in Punjab, district Bahawalpur (I= 8.17 kWh/m2/day) have been found most suitable. This study shows that Pakistan has a good potential to install solar parks in all the provinces and provides a potential solution to address the energy crisis in Pakistan